So Chicago might not be taking my advice and trying to transform itself into a hub of mobile application development, but New York certainly is (though I cannot take any credit for it). The NYC BigApps competition is exactly the sort of government prodding that I think can be helpful in stimulating further entrepreneurialism and innovation. Let me be clear when I say that government action is not a necessary condition for any city’s startup culture in the US, but I do think it’s a positive NPV way for a city or state government to use its funds. I can guarantee NYC will get back more than the $20,000 in cash distributed at BigApps plus whatever G&A expenses incurred in the form of taxes and other revenues.
In the long run, this is a good bet for NYC. Mobile apps make a lot of sense for dense urban environments. Urban dwellers are more likely to derive a lot of utility from mobile apps (think about how much more helpful Yelp is in NY than a farm town) and mobile development teams are particularly well-suited for a metropolis since they works in small teams often of a dozen or less as opposed to packing 1,000s of folks into vast, suburban campus sprawls (Yes, I am thinking of you Adobe, Sun, Microsoft, Apple etc.)
Bravo to New Yorkers Mayor Bloomberg, Fred Wilson, John Borthwick, Kevin Ryan and Danny Shultz among others for getting involved and lending their names and credibility to the event. At the end of the day, any such initiative is only as good as the people putting it together and those competing.
(Also, in another bit of great news for NYC mobile app development, CNET co-founder Kevin Wendle and MusicNation co-founder Daniel Klaus recently announced the AppFund which will be based in NYC. Things are really coalescing for a new era in New York-based entrepreneurialism. Great news for us native New Yorkers with a deep tech passion.)
